The city centre in 1876

The Ordnance Survey's First Edition maps at the large scale of 1:500 recorded the towns of Britain with a precision and in detail far exceeding any earlier series; they remain a very important source for those studying historic towns. The map of Exeter in this series was published in 1876. The centre of the old city, shown here, still retained the long narrow burgage plots of the old medieval city, and very large numbers of poor people were crowded into the area within the old city walls.